Willem Cornelisz Duyster (1599–1635) was a

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands which roughly lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the '' Rampjaar'' occurred. During this period, Dutch trade, scientific development ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, best known for his "

guardroom scene Merry company is the term in art history for a painting, usually from the 17th century, showing a small group of people enjoying themselves, usually seated with drinks, and often music-making. These scenes are a very common type of genre painting ...

s" (''cortegaarddje''),

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre) is the painting of genre art, which depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity ca ...

s showing the military life.

Biography

According to the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

, he was named after his house on the Amsterdam Koningstraat, which was called "De Duystere Werelt", the ''dim world''. He knew his exact contemporary

Pieter Codde Pieter Jacobsz Codde (December 11, 1599 – October 12, 1678) was a Dutch painter of genre works, guardroom scenes and portraits. Life Codde was a technically skilled painter. He is said to have studied with Frans Hals, but it is more likely ...

well though, in a brawl between them in 1625, Codde hit him in the face with a "tin pitcher" at a country house party hosted by another artist. He married the sister of the painter

Simon Kick Simon Kick (1603, Delft – 1652, Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography According to the RKD he was the son of the Delft varnish worker Willem Kick.genre scenes Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...

such as

merry company Merry company is the term in art history for a painting, usually from the 17th century, showing a small group of people enjoying themselves, usually seated with drinks, and often music-making. These scenes are a very common type of genre painting ...

paintings, and military scenes. Unlike many painters of guardroom scenes, he avoided depicting prostitutes, with the women in his military paintings often hostages for ransom or the victims of looting or worse. He exhibited a strong ability to paint textiles, accurately characterize his subjects, and to depict relationships between his figures. Duyster's career was cut short when he succumbed to the plague in 1635.

Notes

References

*Franits, Wayne, ''Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting'', 2004, Yale UP,

External links

Works and literature
at PubHist
Vermeer and The Delft School
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has material on Willem Cornelisz Duyster 1599 births 1635 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Painters from Amsterdam {{Netherlands-painter-stub